A Project Manager is responsible for creating a high performing team that is capable of fulfilling the stakeholders’ expectations. He needs to ensure that the team is equipped with the right skills to fulfill the project’s needs. Negotiation is an important skill that the PM would need to acquire the right kind of resources. A PM will have to negotiate:
- with the stakeholders for the right budget
- with internal stakeholders/resource managers for the right resources
- with Project stakeholders for the right timeline and expectations
- with acquired resources about their roles and responsibilities
Importance of clearly defined roles and responsibilities to a high-performing team
It is a PM’s responsibility to ensure that each team member knows what their roles and responsibility is on the project. This is very important to ensure right expectations and clear communication prevails within the team. If the PM does not ensure this, there are chances that this team will not be efficient to its potential. This sheet is many times referred to as RACI Matrix as well.
A Roles and Responsibilities sheet should contain a minimum of the following things :
- Role Title
- A summary that outlines the need for the role (Optional)
- Primary Responsibilities
- List the main duties in detail that needs to be performed by the person in this role
- Break these duties into tasks if needed.
- Clearly define the metrics that will be used to measure the person’s performance in this role.
The project manager must ensure the team knows the project objectives. This should be his primary task when onboarding new members to the project.
PM responsibilities to ensure a team is a high performing one
A project manager has the responsibility to
- Constantly assess the skills of team members
- Ensure he motivates when and where needed
- Identify areas where the team needs training and facilitate needed pieces of training
- Track Performance
- Give feedback as and when needed
- Manage and resolve conflicts. A PM would need the following skills to perform this
- Facilitation
- Decision making
- Networking
- Leadership
- Negotiations
Managing a global high performing team
A project manager managing a global team needs to take care of the following:
- Plan Virtual teams
- Take an inclusive approach
- Manage Cultural Diversity
- Facilitate Knowledge Transfer
Tools to build a high performing team
- RACI Matrix
- Preassignment tools
- Virtual teams
Deliverables of building a high-performing team
- Skills list
- Technology Stack
- Resource Schedule
- Rates
- Resource assignment
